"The entrepreneurs you'll find on the Inc. 500 have the type of attitude we need to get this economy moving again. For them, a tough market is not an excuse for poor performance, but an opportunity to innovate and rise above the competition."
John Koten
Inc. editor-in-chief

Inc. Magazine today released its 22nd annual Inc. 500 ranking of the fastest-growing private companies in the country. Boca Raton based Rent Rite was named the 4th fastest growing privately held company in the United States with sales growth of 12,359% over the past 5 years.

The companies that made this list have thrived through continued stagnation in the economy, posting an average five-year sales growth of 1,312%. With aggregate revenue of $14.4 billion, Inc. 500 companies are a formidable market force. And while the United States shed 1.5 million jobs in 2002, Inc. 500 companies - half of which were launched with less than $20,000 - provided employment for 67,973 people.

The Inc. 500 ranks privately held companies according to sales growth over the past five years. With 75% of all new job creation in the U.S. coming from small businesses, the Inc. 500 is a prescient indicator of the companies and industries that are driving the economy forward. Over the years, the Inc. 500 has identified the next generation of world-class companies, with Microsoft, Stonyfield Farms, Timberland, Oracle, Princeton Review, Morningstar, E* Trade, Intuit and Domino's Pizza all appearing on the list before they became industry powerhouses.

The following are the top ten companies on the 2003 Inc. 500:

California leads this year as the state with the most Inc. 500 companies (59), Texas is second with 36 firms on the list, followed by Florida (34) and Virginia (30). Maryland and New York are tied with 28 each.

The top metropolitan areas on the Inc. 500 are Washington, D.C. (41 companies), followed by Boston (23), Philadelphia (21), Dallas (19) and Chicago (14). New York City, with only 12, is down from 37 a year ago.

The Inc. 500 is proof that tenacious businesspeople can succeed without the benefit of substantial resources. Of the Inc. 500 founders: 48% had start-up capital of less than $20,000, while only 2% received funding from Venture Capital firms. Now, 78% have an estimated net worth of over $1 million. Most Inc. 500 founders jumped right into their businesses; 84% started companies without benefit of any formal research. Also of note, is that 12% of Inc. 500 company founders are women.

Entrepreneurs leading Defense, Advertising & Marketing and Retail companies are poised to do the most hiring over the next year. The industry with the strongest showing on this year's list is Financial Services, followed by Healthcare, Software, Information Technology Services and Advertising & Marketing.

Linksys Co., a network hardware manufacturer, became one of two companies to ever make the Inc. 500 seven times. It was recently bought by one-time rival Cisco, for $500 million.

Last year's number one Inc. 500 company, The Outsource Group, a staffing company, fell under the weight of its $358,538,425 revenue to a still respectable 35 on the list, with a five-year sales growth of 3,303%.

To be eligible for this year's Inc. 500, companies had to be independent and privately held through their fiscal year 2002, have had at least $200,000 in sales in the base year of 1998, and their 2002 sales had to exceed 2001 sales.